Another Way Chapter 1
by La Femme Noire
Summary: ...and the story of a girl who saw another way. For everyone who cannot sleep after reading The Sweet Far Thing just like me, and for everyone who wishes for an alternate ending, this is my version. Spoiler. All about Gemma and Kartik. I hope it satisfies
1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: All characters are borrowed from Libba Bray. No money is being made from the publication of this story.

**Another Way – Chapter 1**

"No! Kartik, no! I won't let you…You can't do this…Please, come back to me, come back…"

The awful truth of it makes my blood run cold. He intends to give his life for mine; he wants to die so that I might live. From the moment we met, our relationship—as mistrustful acquaintances, as friends and eventually as lovers—has been full of doubt and uncertainty. But in this instant, I know beyond any possible doubt that he loves me and we belong to each other, no matter what the obstacles. I am his, and he mine. Eternal love. No beginning and no end. And yet he must die because of this love.

I collapse onto the grass, writhing in uncontrollable sobs, my eyes shut against the world around me. But the light that comes after his sacrifice is too bright to ignore. It presses against my eyelids, bidding them to open, asking me to look.

The Tree of All Souls is exploding with light. It pushes through in small shafts at first, making cracks in the bark that grow wider until the whole tree is suffused with that piercing glow. It grows until the light covers all of the Winterlands, all of us who have witnessed Kartik's selfless act. I sit up, shielding my eyes with one arm. It is almost too much to bear. And suddenly, as if the light is being sucked back into the tree, the world goes quiet again. The tree is no more. Standing in its place, I see him with a joyful smile on his face, in an ecstasy so great I can't help but feel it too. I throw myself into his arms with a sob of relief, kissing his eyes, his cheeks, his nose, and finally his mouth, until I am so breathless with happiness that I can only collapse into his embrace.

"What happened? Kartik? Oh, my darling, my love, I thought I'd lost you…" I whisper, my mouth close to his ear. The tears fall hot on my cheeks, and I look up to see that they are not only mine but his, and that he is crying too, sharing my joy.

"It told me…Oh Gemma, love, it told me that it was enough…It was enough…"

"What was enough? Tell me," I beg of him.

"Love. All this time, we thought it had to be a human sacrifice. But we failed to see that there was another way. Gemma, you kept me anchored here. It was my willing sacrifice, made out of love, and it was enough. The tree released me. It was destroyed." He hugs me tighter, and I sob into his shoulder, allowing the grief for what we have lost and the joy of what has been gained wash over me.


	2. Chapter 2

DISCLAIMER: All characters are borrowed from Libba Bray. No money is being made from the publication of this story.

**Another Way – Chapter 2**

We are back on the familiar grounds of Spence and it is the day of our graduation. Felicity, Ann and I sit in our graduation robes, our stockings and boots pulled off after sitting in the hot sun on the lawn for hours during the ceremony. We soak our feet in the cool lake, enjoying the feeling of the water against our skin. Our parents, family members and teachers remain near the school for the garden party being held in honor of all the graduates. The three of us have slipped away from the party to savour the quiet of the early summer day and think about all that has happened this year.

A rustling behind us makes us turn, and I see him with his arms folded, leaning against a tree beyond the boathouse. He has a smirk on his face as he watches us…as he watches me. Felicity and Ann give me meaningful smiles as they get up to leave, gathering their stockings and boots as they go. As they slip into the forest, he ambles over to sit beside me on the grassy bank.

We say nothing at first, and I lean my head against his shoulder, letting him hug me tightly. He nuzzles my hair and breathes deeply, and I recall how he loves the scent of juniper that always seems to hang about me. I close my eyes for a moment, and then I turn to reach up to his face and kiss him. He returns the kiss, gently at first, and then with more force as he pulls me closer to him. A soft growl escapes his throat. This is what I long for, what I could spend the rest of my life with; those eyes, those lips, this kiss…

"Gemma," Kartik whispers.

"Yes?" I whisper back, feeling his soft mouth against my own.

He breaks the kiss and gazes at me with a curious look on his face. It is as if he has something to say but cannot find the right words. He looks away, pretending to contemplate the lake, though I know him too well to believe that. He is thinking, considering. I tug on one of his beautiful curls and he turns back to me and smiles, reaching up to catch my hand in a soft grasp.

"Gemma," he says again, this time with more resolve. His hand on mine is cold.

"Yes?" I reply, a small smile playing on my lips. Oh, how lovely he looks when he is nervous!

"You are no longer a Spence girl as of today. Your education is complete." He indicates my robes, and I feel that he is stalling for time.

"Well, yes, I am quite aware of that," I laugh. His face falls and I realize now is not the time for jests. "I'm sorry," I apologize quickly. "Do go on."

He clears his throat. "And I…Well, I have not been Rakshana for some time now. And our shared task of restoring balance to the Realms is done. We have nothing but possibility ahead of us." He gives me a shy smile, and suddenly I am aware of what is coming. It brings a blush to my cheeks and makes my heart beat unnaturally fast.

As he fishes in one of his pockets for what, I can only guess, my heart feels as if it is trying to escape my chest. And it is succeeding.

"Gemma," he says a third time, and my name has never held so much meaning. His intoxicating brown eyes glance downward at something in his palm, and I follow his gaze to see a beautiful little ring, a diamond rosette in a gold setting, lying there. He holds it up and it catches the light like a prism, splitting it into millions of tiny rainbows. It is mesmerizing.

"Kartik, I…" I am speechless as I reach for it. He holds it just beyond my reach, grinning.

"Gemma, I haven't asked yet!" he laughs.

The blush deepens on my cheeks. "Oh, right, yes. What was it you were saying?"

He gazes at me and I see nothing but love in those beautiful eyes. "Gemma, we have shared so much already. In this past year, I feel as if we have become closer than I ever thought possible. I meant it when I said I have glimpsed a part of myself in you, and I never want to be without that part again. Will you please do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

I am lightheaded and giddy as I say, "Yes!" with a laugh. I fall into his arms again, kissing his face all over. He grins and slips the ring onto my left hand.

"It fits perfectly," I say with wonder. "Where did you get this?"

His face is full of emotion. "It was my mother's."

I reach up to hold his cheek with one hand. "Oh, Kartik…"

He holds me close. "She gave it to me just before I was to leave home for the Rakshana," he begins. I have only heard him speak about his parents once before, and that was when I blackmailed him into revealing more about himself. He told me that he had been taken from his parents at the age of six. I felt sorry for him then, but he said there was nothing to be sorry about. "I think she still held out hope that I would marry one day, even though the Brotherhood forbids it. It was a great honor for her sons to be chosen, yes, but losing Amar to them was hard. She did not want the same thing for me." A small tear escapes his eye, and I brush it away with a gentle finger. He looks at me. "I was too young to really understand her words, but I have never forgotten them. She told me to give it to the one woman I knew I could not live without."

I pull his face to mine and kiss him, lost for words. When I finally find my voice, there is only one thing I can say. "I love you," I whisper hoarsely.

It is the first time either of us has said it, though we both know we have felt it for months now. Kartik looks as if he might take flight at any moment, he is so happy. "I love you," he says in reply. "Gemma, you have made me the happiest man in the world. But you must know I don't have much to offer you yet," he continues, and I know it is hard on his pride to admit this. But it must be said.

"That doesn't matter to me," I say, and it is the truth. "I know it won't be easy, my love, and not just in this matter. We will have so much to contend with now that we hope to marry."

He nods his head, his eyes full of sorrow.

"But," I continue, with a smile, "we are most assuredly up to the task. If we can defeat an evil sorceress and return balance to the Realms, I think we can handle a few detractors who would see us miserable rather than let us break a few silly rules."

The cloud lifts from his face and there is nothing but sunshine there again, golden sunshine. "Oh, Gemma!" he laughs, and kisses me again.

We are silent for a while, reveling in each other's company. Tom and Father will be looking for me, and Grandmother would be too if she were not bedridden in our house in London, but I don't care. I want to stay in Kartik's arms forever and dream of him becoming my husband.

"Do you remember when I told you that I did not miss India?" he asks softly, murmuring into my hair.

"I remember," I say.

"I was not being entirely truthful." I turn to look at him and he continues. "I do miss it. Very much. It is just that, back then, home was still such a source of pain for me." I know what he means. His mother, Amar. It is where my mother died as well. It has been hard to forget. "I should like to return there, someday soon."

"You mean…?" I ask, suddenly excited by the prospect.

"Would you consider living there? With me?" he asks softly.

"Consider it?" I ask, giddy again. "When do we leave?"

We laugh together and kiss again and again, not caring about anything except that we are in each other's arms, and as the sun sets on the Spence grounds, I have never felt happier.


	3. Chapter 3

DISCLAIMER: All characters are borrowed from Libba Bray. No money is being made from the publication of this story.

**Another Way – Chapter 3**

As Gemma sits in her father's study, talking to him quietly, I wait in the parlor with her brother Tom. He says nothing but throws questioning glances my way from his armchair. It might as well be a throne from the condescending way he looks at me. But I care not. I am too preoccupied with what is happening in the other room. My entire future is in the hands of a man who has never even considered me for his precious daughter. My entire life decided by a single yes or no. I would have gone in first to speak with Mr. Doyle and ask for his daughter's hand, as a man should. But Gemma insisted she talk to him beforehand. That is one of the things I love about her: her courageous willingness to dispense with tradition. Gemma assures me she will marry me whether her father agrees or not. She tells me this is more a symbolic act than anything else. But I would much rather that our marriage get off to a better start than a forbidden elopement. There is always the chance that she will change her mind once her father makes her see "reason." Agitated, I get up to pace the room, and Tom steps in my path.

My jaw tightens and I clench my fists. It is a reflex and I suppress it when I remember that this is Gemma's brother, flesh and blood to the woman I love, the woman I hope to call my wife. "Something you wanted, Tom?" I say coolly.

He regards me with disdain. "What is this all about? Why has Gemma been holed up in our father's study for hours?"

I scoff inwardly at his whining. But I answer in a civil tone, "I do not believe it is my place to tell you. Your sister has that honor." He glares at me, and it is plain that he still sees me as his father's hired coachman rather than the man who, along with his sister, saved him from the Rakshana.

Tom resumes his seat, and I resume pacing the floor. It _has _felt like hours, though I know it has been all of forty minutes. Finally, after what seems like another eternity, the study door opens quietly and Gemma crosses the hall into the parlor. She glances at Tom then lets her vivid green eyes rest on me, and I feel as if I could melt into the floor. A small smile graces her beautiful pink lips. I want to kiss them so badly, but not while Tom is in the room. I must content myself with staring at her beauty…for now.

"Kartik, Father would like to see you in his study," she says sweetly, and from the way she looks at me I know she feels the same longing.

"Thank you, Gemma," I reply. Out of the corner of my eye I see Tom start, shocked by our familiarity. He is beginning to understand. I allow my hand to lightly brush her arm as we pass each other, and I am thrilled by the familiar tingling sensation that comes every time I touch her. Tom settles into his armchair, grumbling. If his father agrees to our plan, he has no choice but to accept it as well. He is not yet the head of the family, and I do believe he loves his sister, though he does not always show it. _He will come around in time_, I tell myself. That is, if we can get beyond this first obstacle.

My heart pounds as I raise a hand to knock on the study door. I have never felt this kind of fear, not even on my most dangerous missions as a member of the Rakshana. So this is what love does to a man. I rap on the door sharply, and Mr. Doyle's feeble "Enter" floats from the room.

It is suffocatingly warm inside, and dark as well. Mr. Doyle is not a healthy man, and his constitution cannot take anything less than this stifling heat. That is why his family has booked him passage to India on the H.S. Orlando, leaving at the earliest possibility. He might not yet know that Gemma and I intend to do the same.

I close the door gently and sit where he indicates. He says nothing for a while, only stares at me with a penetrating gaze that belies his inner strength. Finally, he clears his throat and says, "So, Gemma tells me that the two of you intend to marry."

I force myself to look him in the eye. "Yes, sir. I asked her the day of her graduation from Spence."

He shakes his head, and that cold fear grips my heart again. "How did this happen? Has this been going on since you entered into my employment?"

Of course, I chide myself inwardly. Naturally, he would assume we fell in love when I took the job as his coachman to be close to her. He thinks he knows the truth, but he wants to hear it from my own lips. I was Rakshana then and charged with guarding the High Priestess of the Order. Later, I admitted to myself that I had other reasons for wanting to be close to her. However, I cannot tell him all this. I do not like to lie; it is not honorable. But Gemma has relayed to me what happened when she tried to tell him about the Realms, the Order, the threat of the Rakshana to Tom. She must have reinforced this idea of his, that I met and courted her under her father's roof. I must continue the lie. There is no choice.

"Yes, sir. Gem--Miss Doyle and I, we spent time together while I was here. We…We fell in love, sir." I watch carefully for his reaction. When it comes, his tears surprise me.

"All my life, I have only wanted to see her happy. She is my angel. You know this?" he asks me sharply.

"Yes, sir. I know." _And she is mine, too_, I continue in my head.

He sighs. "This is not what I expected for my daughter."

Though I see the truth in his words, they still sting. "I don't think either of us expected this either, sir," I say honestly. "But we do love each other very much.

He is silent, considering. "I assume she has told you that her grandmother left her quite an inheritance when she died."

The implication angers me, but I know he speaks only out of concern for Gemma. Her grandmother passed away a few days after her graduation, and we wanted to wait a respectable amount of time before making our intentions known to her family. It has been weeks since the funeral and the reading of her grandmother's will. I stop myself from pointing out that our engagement was set before then. Though Gemma was deeply saddened by her passing, the independence it has afforded her has made her happy. She says it will help ease us into our new life together, though I do not intend to let her shoulder the burden. Far from it.

"I am an honorable man, sir," I say simply.

He looks at me again, and this time I see something like respect in his eyes. "I know that." He looks old, tired. "You may not think I remember, Kartik, but I know that you were there the night Gemma saved me from...that place." He is referring to Chin's opium den in the most deplorable part of London, and I see the memory of it still brings him pain. "I know you showed bravery equal to my daughter's. I also know that you would do anything to protect her."

I nod vigorously. "Anything, sir. Anything in the world."

He gives me a small smile, the first I have seen from him. "I also understand you intend to live in India. I wonder if you've considered what this means, that you will have to look after your old father-in-law until the end of his days?"

My heart thumps loudly as I realize what he is saying. "Then sir…You mean, you are consenting to this marriage?"

He stands up, though it is a great effort for him, and I rise to meet him. I grasp his outstretched hand. "Yes, I give you my consent, on the condition that you will love her as much as she deserves to be loved." He gives me a stern look. "And that is quite a lot, Mr. Kartik."

I cannot keep myself from grinning. "I already do, sir."


	4. Chapter 4

DISCLAIMER: All characters are borrowed from Libba Bray. No money is being made from the publication of this story.

**Another Way – Chapter 4**

The day of our wedding is the happiest day of my life. We are in India again, in a beautiful part of Bombay near the river. The wedding is outdoors, and children gather from the nearby houses to watch as the procession passes through. I sit atop my horse under a tree that has been decorated to serve as a natural arch, the place where we will bind ourselves to one another for eternity, in this world and the next. I am dressed in black fine clothes, a garland of petals around my neck, the traditional red mark of the bridegroom on my forehead. I cannot see her yet through the crowd of well-wishers and children carrying colorful banners, women throwing rose petals on the path that will lead her to me, men beating traditional drums and dancing to the music. Her friends, Felicity and Ann, stand next to her Father and Tom. All of them have come on the long and perilous journey from England to share this day with us. Felicity will return to Paris after the wedding is over to live her life, free and uninhibited. Ann will continue her successful career as an actress on the London stage. Tom, a practicing physician, will go back to his patients in London and the Hippocrates Society, which has become a source of pride for him. But Gemma's father will remain in India in a house not far from our own, to spend his remaining days with his beloved daughter.

I am heady with anticipation. The sights, sounds and smells are almost overwhelming, but it is the happiness I feel the most. Suddenly, the beat changes and I hear the traditional Hindu wedding march. My horse whinnies and I soothe her with an outstretched hand. In the distance, I see more children carrying banners, and they part to reveal the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. She is wearing a brilliant purple sari and her delicate hands are painted with intricate henna tattoos that match those on her bare feet. Stacks of thin gold bangles dance on both of her slender white arms almost up to her elbows. Part of her sari covers her hair in a sweeping fold, but there is no hiding those sumptuous flaming curls that shimmer and turn gold as they catch the sun. The people on either side of the path look on in awe. Her radiance is breathtaking. Everyone's eyes are on her, but her eyes are on me alone. "A green-eyed goddess," I hear one of the children near me whisper in Hindi to his companion, and I look down at him and smile. She is indeed a goddess. My goddess. My Gemma.

She has almost reached me, and the music dies down. For a second, everything is silent, and she and I are the only two people in the world. I bring my horse forward to meet her, and she looks up at me and smiles. I offer her my hand, which she takes. A single word is all that is needed, for she knows that the two of us have been in this place before, if only in a shared dream. But this time, it is very much a reality.

"Hello," I say with a grin.


End file.
